It is easy for us to use words like “healthy”, “wellness”, etc., but sometimes these terms are so general and broad that they lose their meaning.

For instance, if you say, “I want to get healthy”, what exactly does that mean to you? What do you picture yourself doing if you’re a healthy person? What do you picture yourself not doing as a healthy person?

If you are looking at making changes in your health journey, starting with a Wellness Vision can prove to be extremely helpful. As we know from other goals we’ve pursued in our lives, if we don’t know where we’re going, it’s difficult to know when we’ve gotten there. It’s also difficult to know if we’re taking steps in the right direction when we aren’t clear on the result we’re aiming for.

A Wellness Vision, as defined by the Wellcoaches Corporation, “is a compelling statement of who you are and what health-promoting, life-giving behaviors you want to do consistently.” When crafting your Wellness Vision, you can take some time to picture who you are, what you look like, and what you would be doing once you reach your version of wellness. As you picture yourself at your highest state of wellness, you can ask yourself the following questions:

Who am I?
What do I look like?
What do I feel like?
What do I see myself doing…daily, weekly, monthly?
What do I see my family doing?
What is my WHY? Why does it matter that I work toward my Wellness Vision? What is at stake if I do not achieve this?

Crafting a Wellness Vision for yourself is a great place to start on your health journey. If you’ve been on the journey for a while, it’s useful for you to create a Wellness Vision too. This way, you can see if you’re making progress in the direction you want to go, and if not, make some adjustments to get you there.

Creating your Wellness Vision is just the beginning of thinking through steps on your health journey. If you haven’t met with one of our wellness coaches yet, I encourage you to set up a meeting by clicking on the “Coaching” link above. They will walk you through creating your own personal Wellness Vision, they’ll help you think through parts of your health journey such as your own personal strengths and community support available to you, and assist you in how to deal with challenges and barriers to reaching your goals.

Let’s not wander aimlessly toward “being healthy”. Clarifying what “healthy” means to you will enable your Wellness Vision to become a reality.

Written by Brittni Paris, SFC Blogger

Credits:
Moore, Margaret, Tschannen-Moran, Bob. (2008). Chapter 8: Vision, Planning, and Goals. In Coaching Psychology Manual (Chapter 8). Retrieved from http://www.wellcoach.com/newsletters/images/Chapter-8.pdf

Photo Credits:
Photo by Daniel Apodaca on Unsplash
Photo by Jonathan Pendleton on Unsplash
Photo by Justin Luebke on Unsplash